


Don't Test My Dedication

by Whyohwhyamidoingthis123456789



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, someone give Zach Hyman a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:33:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24618397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whyohwhyamidoingthis123456789/pseuds/Whyohwhyamidoingthis123456789
Summary: The thing about being an NHL player, and a children’s book author is that Zach is always busy. And that’s before you throw in charity engagements and trying to create a start up video game company. Suffice to say Zach barely has time to brush his teeth before falling asleep every night much less have time to even think about Will. Zach’s subconscious however, is very much not with the program about being too busy for feelings.
Relationships: Zach Hyman/William Nylander
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

The team plane was almost silent on the way home from Chicago. They’d won in a shootout and at this point in the season everyone was content with the two points secured but there was no boisterous celebration. 

Zach had always liked flying, almost all of his third book had been written in the air. Tonight he was planning on looking over the final edits his publishing company had sent to him for his latest children's book. Except when he leaned over to grab his laptop from his bag he caught sight of Willy across the isle from him.

Willy normally looked like a beautiful, put together Swedish prince who just happened to play hockey. His constant happiness near nauseating no matter who he was around. Or at least Zach told himself that was the reason for the feeling he got deep in the pit of his stomach whenever Willy turned his stupidly bright smile towards Zach. 

Right now though, he looked like a mess. 

His hair, while usually messy, falling out of some stupid man bun he absolutely couldn’t pull off, was now pulled every which way. The buttons on his shirt were done up wrong somehow. What struck Zach the most however, was that William’s usual glow was absent. Instead a dull lifeless version seemed to take his place.

Sighing, Zach didn’t even bother taking his computer out of his bag. Instead he shifted out of the window seat he previously occupied and moved to sit next to Will.

“Hey,” Will said startling out of his own thoughts and giving Zach a soft smile, “What brings you over here.”

“Can’t I sit next to my favourite liney whenever I feel like it,” Zach joked.

“I’m not you’re liney anymore dude, go tease mitchy instead,” was Willie's predictable response. 

“I’d rather sit with you,” Zach said, “don’t tell Mitch,” he added for good measure. Like Zach had predicted the mixture of honest compliments and good natured teasing brought a real smile to William’s face. 

“Thanks, Zachy” he said practically beaming at Zach. Nauseating, Zach reminded himself, nothing more. Except as quickly as the smiling graced Will’s face it left.

Zach racked his brain, desperate to bring it back, because they’re friends just friends and you should always want your friends to be smiling at you. 

“How was Alex?” Zach finally decided. Nobody loved their family, or talking about their family more than Will. He’d get this ridiculously proud look on his face when he talked about Alex’s last highlight worthy goal, a particularly good set in tennis that Jackie had just played, or how well Dani was doing at her new school. 

“He’s good,” Will sighed. “Great actually, he loves Chicago and his teammates and he just found a really nice apartment to move into.” All of that did sound great, Zach however sensed a but coming. Will turned in his seat to face Zach now, but Zach stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue. 

“It’s not that I’m not happy for him, I am,” he paused, “It’s just that I miss when he was only in Buffalo and I could go visit on days off- I didn’t even know he was moving until today. He didn’t call me when he signed the lease.” Will looked as disgruntled as Zach had ever seen him, the look in his eyes however was familiar from Zach’s own days back in Michigan, homesickness.

“You miss him,” Zach realized. It seemed stupid that he hadn’t figured it out sooner. Of course someone who loved their family as much as Will would miss them in a way that Zach, whose family lived in Toronto, would never quite understand.

“It’s just hard, he’s been my best friend my whole life and now I only get to see him in the summer. And I know it seems silly because everyone in this sport has to leave their family but it still sucks” 

“I got drafted by Florida,” Zach said with a chuckle, “It’s barely a different time zone and I still wouldn’t sign with them.” Family maybe wasn't the only reason Zach didn’t jump at the chance to play down in the sunshine state but he couldn’t really imagine living that far away from his brothers, his mom. Michigan was far enough. 

“That’s very you,” Will replied.

“What do you mean?” What not wanting to deal with crocodiles and humidity had to do with his personality was a mystery to Zach.

“Mitch always talks about how lucky he is to play for his hometown team, but you- you somehow managed to be stubborn enough and work hard enough to get signed by the leafs without getting drafted by them.” Will was grinning like he just figured out another piece to a puzzle.

“Glad to know that stubborn and hard working are my two defining characteristics.”

“Haven’t you listened to the media lately.” Will was grinning, this little self-satisfied smirk on his face. 

“Go to sleep Will.” Ignoring William Nylander and his particular looks was becoming one of Zach’s specialties. Will, because he and personal space had clearly never been acquainted, moved Zach’s body around to use as a pillow.

“I’m glad you don’t play for Florida, Zachy,” Willy said with a sleepy voice.

Okay- Zach’s self aware enough to admit he’s screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

The thing about being an NHL player, and a children’s book author is that Zach is always busy. And that’s before you throw charity engagements and trying to create a start up video game company into the mix. Suffice to say Zach barely has time to brush his teeth before falling asleep every night much less have time to even think about Will.

Zach’s subconscious however, is very much not with the program about being too busy for feelings. 

When it was just a dream or two here and there Zach could ignore it. Will’s an attractive guy, it’s only natural that Zach would notice. They spend enough time together that it’s not weird for him to be in his dreams. Except lately even doing mundane things like going grocery shopping would somehow remind him of Willie. 

The obvious conclusion was that Zach isn’t busy enough, which is what he was currently trying to explain to his agent while walking into practice.

“Run this by me again- you want to what?” Eileen said over the phone. What Zach really wanted was to stop hearing Will’s laugh every night when he went to sleep, but he wasn’t about to tell his agent that. 

“I want to write a novel.” Zach explained. “I’ve written four children’s books now and I think it could be a fun new challenge to try writing something for adults.” Hopefully a very very time consuming challenge, one that wouldn’t leave room for anything else in his head.

“That’s a big jump, Zach,” Eileen said hesitantly, “Are you sure you want to take that step.”

"No," Zach thought

“It’ll be fun,” he said instead. Eileen muttered something under her breath that Zach didn’t quite catch before agreeing to send him the information he needed and hanging up. He didn’t even have the chance to put his phone back in his pocket before Will came bounding up to him.

“What’s going to be fun Zachy?” he asked with way too much cheer for this early in the morning. 

“Nothing,” Zach said, already regretting not making an extra strong cup of coffee this morning

“Oh.” When Willie didn’t keep pestering Zach to know he shot a look in the other man's direction. He looked lost in thought but when he caught Zach’s eye he plastered a smile on his face.

“Last one to the changeroom buys lunch,” Will yelled already rushing towards the end of the hallway. Zach definitely didn’t enjoy watching Will run away, not even a little, nope. He was way too mature to check a coworker out, even if said coworker had an ass as nice as Will’s. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch with Willy after practice wasn’t necessarily a tradition, but it happened often enough that Zach wasn’t a stranger to waiting around the practice rink waiting for him since he changed at a snail’s pace.

“I’m not slow Zachy,” Willy said full of indignation, “I just have more steps in my routine than you do."

Andreas, who had also been roped into lunch, snorted and mumbled something in Swedish under his breath. Whatever was said caused Willy to turn bright red and shove at his fellow Swede lamenting about the harsh realities of betrayal.

Willy always had a dramatic streak, like a character from one of the novels Zach secretly read when he was bored. Captivating, interesting, but not someone you actually believe could exist in real life. 

The new waitress at their regular lunch spot seemed to agree with Zach’s musings. Doing a comedically impressive double take upon seeing who she was serving.

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Andreas said, shooting a bemused glance over at the waitress.

“You my man,” Willy crowed, “are a bona fide hockey star now. The ladies will be crawling all over you!”

“It’s not me that this girl is staring at, and I also don’t think her interest in you has anything to do with hockey.” 

Willy huffed rolling his eyes at the younger swede, “Tell Mango he’s wrong Zachy.”

“Christmas Market, our rookie year, you were the only one anyone wanted pictures with,” Zach pointed out. He remembered all the girls swarming around Willy asking for pictures. Auston’s face when he realized not a single one of them cared about him, four goal debut, saviour of the leafs, was a priceless memory that Zach will treasure forever.

“I don’t remember that, I just remember-” he cut himself off abruptly, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. However just as Zach was about to ask what exactly Willy did remember the waitress appeared by the table.

“How was your meal,” she asked her gaze fixed on Will. His blush only seemed to get deeper and he let out an awkward half cough telling her it was good.

“Anything else I can get you?”

“Just the bill, please.” Will seemed to have regained his composure, flashing her an easy grin. She went to grab their empty plates and winked at Willy on her way back to the kitchen. Mango, at the very least, had the good grace to wait until she was out of earshot before bursting out laughing, Zach following right after.

“Don’t laugh,” Will choked out, mock offended before dissolving into giggles himself. 

Will’s eruption of giggles set Andreas back off and Zach was distantly aware that they were probably disrupting the other customers, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

They managed to sober up before the waitress came back. Will tossed some cash on the table, enough to cover their bill and leave a quite generous tip. 

They headed out to where Zach’s car was parked, but not before the waitress managed to slip her phone number into Will’s jacket pocket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zach was almost always designated to drive since he grew up in Toronto and knew all the shortcuts. He used to complain, but the one time he let Will drive him to practice scarred him for life. And Zach regularly let people with 30 pounds on him slam him into glass boards, so that’s saying something. 

As Zach was getting onto the QEW, Mango leaned forward from the back seat, and grabbed Will’s phone from his hand.

“What the-give that back,” Will yelled, twisting around in his seat reaching for Andreas.

For his part the rookie just laughed, leaning into the back quickly typing on Will’s phone. Just then the speakers of Zach’s car blared to life, with impossibly loud Swedish music, some EDM pop mix that Zach had no hope of following.

Willy’s eyes however, went wide as he and Andreas started belting out the lyrics, bouncing up and down in their seats like 9 year olds. Zach wanted to be annoyed but he couldn’t help laugh, appreciating his teammates letting loose and having fun. Especially Will, who was pretty sad just a couple days ago at the end of their road trip.

He almost felt bad kicking Mango out of the car when they got to his apartment, almost. Mango however took it in stride, tossing Will’s phone back to him and hopping out of the car.

Luckily, Willy lived close by so Zach didn’t even need to get back on the highway to head over to Will’s apartment. Will continued to shuffle through songs on his playlist, although he switched back to english for Zach.

“You coming up?” Will asks once they get to his apartment, “We could play some Chel.” An afternoon of hanging out with Will sounded so nice but if Zach was actually going to convince Eileen that he has a career writing more than just children’s novel’s he should probably get some work done.

“Next time,” He said. A look of disappointment flashed across Willie’s face but it was gone in an instant so Zach figured he was just projecting. 

“I’ll hold you to that.” Grabbing his bag from the back Will hopped out of the car. Zach watched him walk away until the doors to the apartment lobby closed behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to have an internet for the next several days (Cottage time!) so I kinda rushed to finish this


	3. Chapter 3

As it turns out Zach realized, after staring at a blank word document on his computer for the past hour, writing a novel was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. It’s not like he had a shortage of ideas, just the opposite actually, he had too many. Hundreds of pieces of dialogue, characters concepts, but no clear plan on what his book would even be about, much less how to twist it together into something people would want to read. 

Coffee, Zach decided, getting up to get his fourth cup of the morning, more coffee definitely wouldn’t hurt the creative process. He went to fill up his old University of Michigan mug that he got his mum as a present his first year of college. She gave it back to him when he bought his first apartment in Toronto saying he should have it as a keepsake. Zach knew it was more because she thought it was ugly but would never throw it out, rather than any kind of sentimental value she thought was attached to it.

Just as he was stirring milk into the cup of lukewarm at best coffee, his doorbell rang. He didn’t even have time to move towards the door before whoever was on the other side started to bang obnoxiously on the wood. 

Zach made his way over to the entrance to his apartment, throwing the door open to be greeted by the sight of Will, fist still raised to knock.

“Zachy,” Will crowed, stepping past Zach into the apartment and heading straight for Zach’s kitchen. He had a large paper bag in his hand, judging by the smell it was filled with some form of takeout. 

“I’m glad you’re alive,” Will continued, pulling plates out of Zach’s cupboard, “I’ve been texting you all morning but you haven’t answered at all.”

“So you thought I was dead.” Zach really shouldn’t indulge in Will’s over dramatic streak but he couldn’t always help himself.

“It was the only logical explanation,” Will said, nodding enthusiastically and scoping ridiculous amounts of Thai food from Zach’s favourite place, the one near Will’s apartment, onto plates and shoving Zach onto the couch to eat. “You wouldn’t ignore me for any other reason so I was worried, afraid you died in your sleep and I’d have to figure out what to say at your funeral.

Will’s sunny smile, and the relaxed lines of his shoulders definitely didn’t scream worried but Zach could be magnanimous when he wanted to be.

“But you had time to stop for takeout, I mean that much to you Willy,” he teased. Magnanimous Zach might be but he wasn’t about to give up his favourite pastime of making fun of Will. 

“It was on the way, besides, I was going to need my strength to lug your body out of this building,” Will was still grinning infectiously over at Zach, but something didn’t make sense.

“Wait, I thought you got this from our usual place,” Zach said gesturing towards his half eaten plate of food. At Will’s nod of confirmation he continued, “Isn’t that the opposite direction from your place to here?”

“I was already at the end of town.” Will was looking down at his plate now though, self-consciously fiddling with his hair. Whatever Will had been doing before he came over to Zach’s he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. As much as Zach would like to know what Will was thinking, he didn’t want to push. The swede was incredibly open about almost everything in his life so it always felt wrong to dig into the things he chose to keep to himself. 

“Thanks man,” Zach said, choosing to move on. He got up, ignoring the weird look on Will’s face and took both of their plates back to the kitchen. Once he had scraped them off and put the leftover takeout in the fridge he made his way back to the couch where Will was playing around with his TV remote, trying to queue something up on Netflix. 

“I’m trying to write a novel,” Zach blurted out looking at the screen instead of at Will. He didn’t know why he was suddenly nervous, like telling Will made it real all of a sudden. “That’s why I didn’t answer this morning, I threw my phone in the other room so that I would have to focus.”

“That’s so cool dude,” Will said, turning completely towards Zach, Netflix forgotten. “What’s it about, is it still for kids?” he questioned.

“I literally have no idea,” Zach huffed, “I’ve been trying to write all morning but I have no clue what to write about.”

“Well what do you normally do?” Zach didn’t really have a clue.

“It’s different when it is a picture book,” he tried to explained. “The story is a lot simpler and all you have to do is decide what your main character wants more than anything and make it come true.”

“So just do that but for big kids,” Will said grinning like the solution was that simple.

“It has to be realistic though,” Zach sighed, “in real life dreams don’t just come true with a lot of hard work and some help from your friends.” Instead of nodding or giving a little laugh like Zach was expecting however Will looked absolutely devastated. Oh, Zach thought to himself, of course Will wouldn’t get it, it takes a special type of person to follow all their dreams, to make them come true even if they have to fake a smile and lie until they can make what they want a reality. William Nylander was certainly one of those people, but Zach didn’t think he’d ever have Will’s particular brand of courage. 

There was a kind of tension between them now that Zach didn’t know how to break. Will, seemingly feeling the same thing turned back to the TV and put an episode of Brooklyn 99 on. Zach had just stopped thinking about their conversation, getting lost in the jokes he’d already heard at least twice before when William turned to look at him.

“I think you should give it a try,” Will said quietly, “It’s your book, why can’t everyone have a happy ending if that’s what you want?”

And well Zach couldn’t really argue with that logic, could he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was inspired by my creative writing prof who believes coffee can fix anything


End file.
